UNIVERSITY"  ARCHIVES 

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University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA 
BERKELEY 


UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY   PRESS 

BERKELEY 

1915 


DONOR  OF  THE  BUILDING 

CHARLES  FRANKLIN  DOE,  whose  gift  of  three- 
quarters  of  a  million  dollars  rendered  the  con- 
struction of  the  new  library  building  for  the 
University  of  California  a  possibility,  was  born 
at  Parsonsfield,  Maine,  August  13,  1833.  He  was 
descended  from  a  typical  New  England  family, 
the  youngest  of  a  family  of  twelve,  and  of  deli- 
cate constitution  from  his  childhood.  Ill-health 
prevented  his  success  as  a  teacher  in  his  home 
town,  and  as  a  carpenter  and  builder  in  Boston. 
It  was  therefore  a  blessing  to  him  that  in  1857 
he  could  join  his  brothers  Bartlett  and  John  Doe, 
who  had  gone  to  California  in  1850.  Here  he 
found  a  congenial  climate  and  recovered  his 
health  sufficiently  to  attain  the  front  rank  among 
the  business  men  of  San  Francisco.  He  first 
allied  himself  with  his  brothers  in  a  sash,  door, 
and  blind  manufactory,  afterwards  forming  a 
partnership  with  James  Knowland  in  the  .retail 
lumber  business.  In  these  ventures  and  through 
careful  investments  in  city  real  estate  he  built  up 
a  fortune  of  several  million  dollars. 

There  was  nothing  spectacular  about  his  suc- 
cess. He  conserved  his  health,  doing  always  "a 
quiet,  honest  business/7  Mr.  Doe  was  regular  in 
his  habits,  shy  and  retiring  and  had  few  intimate 
friends.  In  this  he  was  strongly  in  contrast  with 
his  brother  Bartlett,  who  was  a  man  of  very 
positive  qualities.  This  shyness  was  especially 
marked  in  the  presence  of  women,  which  ex- 
plains the  fact  that  he  remained  a  bachelor 
throughout  his  life.  Yet  he  was  an  ardent  lover 
of  children  and  deeply  interested  in  their  welfare, 
[21 


as  the  list  of  his  benefactions  testifies.  A  Uni- 
versalist  in  religion,  he  was  indiscriminate  in  his 
gifts  to  institutions  for  the  protection  and  care 
of  children — those  of  all  creeds  sharing  equally. 
The  gift  of  twenty-four  per  cent  of  his  prop- 
erty to  the  University  of  California  for  a  library 
building  was  the  result  of  an  idea  that  had  de- 
veloped during  the  last  years  of  his  life.  In  this 
plan  he  was  advised  and  guided  by  his  friend, 
H.  B.  Phillips.  He  often  said  that  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars  was  enough  for  any  one  man,  the 
remainder  belonging  to  the  state.  Holding  these 
views,  his  gift  to  the  University  would  have  been 
more  generous  had  it  not  been  for  a  state  law 
restricting  the  percentage  of  his  fortune  a  man 
might  bequeath  to  institutions.  At  any  rate  the 
amount  donated  has  sufficed  to  erect  a  monument 
to  his  name,  not  only  lovely  from  an  esthetic 
viewpoint,  but  also  a  center  of  spiritual  activity 
of  unceasing  beneficence.  It  is  no  source  of 
wonder  that  one  to  whom  books  were  the  chief 
happiness  and  relaxation  should  have  seized  upon 
the  opportunity  to  create  a  great  library  and 
valued  that  fact  as  the  crowning  event  of  his 
life.  His  death  occurred  in  1904. 

DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  BUILDING 

Doe  bequest,  1904. 

Cornerstone  laid,  Thanksgiving  Day,  1908. 

Library  opened  in  June,  1911. 

Architecture:  Classic,  a  mingling  of  Corinthian 
and  Ionic,  with  red  tiled  roof. 

Framework :  Steel  incased  in  concrete.  The  whole 
building  is  fireproof.  Doors,  sashes  and  stacks 
of  metal.  The  main  doors  are  of  massive 
bronze. 

[3] 


Dimensions:  Width,  east  and  west  front,  226  feet; 
height,  60  feet.  Length,  north  and  south,  263 
feet. 

Plan :  Square  court,  used  as  stack-room,  surrounded 
by  various  reading  rooms,  seminar  rooms,  de- 
livery hall,  etc. 

Materials:  The  exterior  is  of  California  granite, 
the  main  vestibule  and  staircase  of  white 
Italian  marble.  The  delivery  hall  is  paneled 
in  arches  of  caen  stone,  buff-tinted.  The  read- 
ing-room is  finished  in  similar  manner,  but 
with  rectangular  paneling,  the  vaulted  ceiling 
being  ornamented  with  panels  containing  cen- 
ters of  conventionalized  blossoms  in  high 
relief.  The  walls  of  the  other  rooms  are  fin- 
ished in  neutral  tinted  plaster,  and  all  floors 
are  covered  with  battleship  linoleum. 

Lighting:  The  reading-room  and  delivery  hall  are 
lighted  during  the  day  by  large  windows  and 
skylights,  and  at  night  by  ceiling  lights.  In 
addition,  the  reading-room  tables  are  provided 
with  electric  lamps,  bronze  standards  with  two 
lights  each.  Ordinary  electroliers  and  desk 
lamps  are  used  in  the  other  rooms. 

Delivery  Hall:  28x134  feet;  opens  into  reading- 
room  and  stack;  contains  a  massive  marble 
and  bronze  loan  desk.  The  delivery  hall  is  the 
center  of  activities  and  houses  the  catalogues 
of  the  library  proper  (west  end),  and  the 
bibliographical  catalogues  formed  from  the 
cards  of  the  Library  of  Congress  and  other 
institutions  (east  end).  At  the  east  end  are 
also  cases  containing  athletic  trophies  and  col- 
lections of  rare  coins,  etc. 

'Reading -room:  53  feet  wide  and  210  long,  40  feet 
in  height;  lighted  by  skylights  and  great  win- 
dows on  the  north,  east,  and  west  sides;  con- 
tains thirty-five  reading  tables,  capable  of  ac- 
commodating over  five  hundred  readers.  Around 
the  walls  are  steel  cases  in  which  are  shelved 
a  reference  collection  of  about  15,000  volumes, 
special  reading  cases  being  provided  in  the 
[41 


center  of  the  room  for  general  reference  books 
and  atlases.  A  reference  desk  of  carved  and 
paneled  oak  is  at  the  entrance  to  the  room 
facing  the  loan  desk. 

tack:  104  feet  long  by  43  feet  wide,  and  five 
decks  each  IVz  feet  in  height;  the  shelving 
is  of  pressed  steel,  capable  of  accommodat- 
ing about  375,000  volumes.  The  stack  is 
lighted  from  the  rear  by  windows  looking  out 
on  an  open  court.  A  wide  aisle  permits  the 
placing  of  small  tables  for  the  use  of  profes- 
sors and  research  workers  who  have  stack 
privileges.  An  electric  elevator,  automatic 
book-lift  and  telephone  system  contribute  to 
rapid  service.  Provision  for  the  addition  of 
four  stories  to  the  present  stack  and  for 
further  extension  into  the  court  as  need  re- 
quires is  made  in  the  plans. 

Administrative  Offices:  Librarian's  office  (13x14 
feet) ;  associate  librarian  ?s  office  (15  x  21 
feet);  catalogue  department  (30x30  feet); 
accessions  department  (two  rooms,  each  15  x 
30  feet).  An  electric  freight  elevator  connects 
the  accessions  department  with  the  basement 
and  with  the  ground  floor. 

Periodical  Boom:  88  x  61  feet,  on  the  ground  floor 
at  the  right  of  the  entrance.  Lighted  by  north 
and  west  windows.  Contains  a  two-story  stack 
for  bound  periodicals  and  wall  cases  for  cur- 
rent numbers.  Capacity  of  shelves  about 
50,000  volumes.  Seating  capacity,  120. 

Bancroft  Library:  Opposite  the  periodical  room 
and  of  the  same  dimensions  is  the  room  in 
which  the  Bancroft  collection  of  Pacific  coast 
literature  is  installed.  This  room  also  con- 
tains a  two-story  stack  capable  of  accommo- 
dating about  50,000  volumes.  The  office  of 
the  curator  connects  with  the  Bancroft  library. 
This  contains  filing  cabinets  and  steel  cases 
for  manuscripts  and  the  more  valuable  bound 
volumes. 

Seminar  rooms  and  special  libraries :  On  the  ground 
floor,  a  corridor  runs  around  three  sides  of  the 
quadrangle  of  the  Library,  upon  which  open 
[5] 


the  rooms  devoted  to  special  collections  and 
seminar  rooms  for  the  different  departments 
of  instruction.  There  are  thirty-five  of  these 
rooms,  varying  in  size  from  15x15  feet  to 
30x30  feet.  Certain  of  these  not  used  for 
seminar  rooms  are  used  for  special  purposes, 
e.g.,  University  archives  (1-2),  University 
Press  (4),  staff  room,  men  (14),  staff  room, 
women  (24-26),  maps  and  charts  (28),  library 
school  (30-33).  Two  cloak-rooms  are  also  pro- 
vided at  the  sides  of  the  main  staircase. 

Architect:  John  Galen  Howard,  the  architect  of 
the  Doe  Library,  has  been  Professor  of  Archi- 
tecture and  supervising  architect  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  California  since  1901.  Under  his 
direction  the  permanent  plans  for  the  build- 
ings of  the  University  as  proposed  by  Monsieur 
Benard,  the  winner  of  the  first  prize  in  the 
Hearst  competition,  are  being  developed.  The 
fact  that  Mr.  Howard  was  the  winner  of  the 
fourth  prize  in  the  competition  renders  his 
appointment  as  the  University  architect  par- 
ticularly appropriate.  Mr.  Howard  studied 
under  H.  H.  Eichardson,  McKim,  Mead,  and 
White,  ^and  at  the  ticole  des  Beaux  Arts,  and 
has  designed  many  important  buildings  in  the 
United  States. 

Furniture,  chairs,  desks,  lamps,  etc.:  Designed  in 
the  main  by  J.  H.  P.  Atkins,  of  the  firm  of 
Vickery,  Atkins  and  Torrey,  San  Francisco. 
Catalogue  cases  and  wooden  furniture  mainly 
supplied  by  a  San  Francisco  firm,  A.  J.  Forbes 
and  Sons. 

Heating  and  Ventilation:  The  Library  is  supplied 
with  heat  from  the  central  power  plant,  and 
the  main  rooms  are  supplied  with  air  thor- 
oughly purified  by  an  air-washing  plant  in- 
stalled in  the  basement. 

Catalogues  and  Classification :  The  Library  is  class- 
ified according  to  a  system  devised  by  Mr.  J. 
C.  Rowell,  the  Librarian.  Certain  classes 
(history,  political  and  social  sciences),  how- 
ever, are  now  being  reclassified  according  to 
[6] 


the  system  in  use  at  the  Library  of  Congress. 
A  new  catalogue  on  the  dictionary  principle  is 
also  being  developed.  About  20,000  volumes 
have  been  reclassified  and  70,000  cards  filed 
in  the  new  catalogue.  In  addition  to  the  cata- 
logues of  the  library  proper  there  is  a  biblio- 
graphic catalogue  of  the  catalogue  cards  of  all 
American  libraries  at  present  printing  cards. 
This  numbers  approximately  1,000,000  cards. 
The  Library  of  Congress  cards,  of  course, 
form  the  bulk  of  this  collection,  although 
about  200,000  cards  have  been  supplied  by  the 
printed  cards  of  Harvard  University  Library, 
John  Crerar  Library,  University  of  Chicago 
Library,  and  the  Royal  Library  at  Berlin. 


General  Statistics: 

Number  of  volumes  in  the  Library: 

about  300,000 

Number  of  yearly  accessions  (average)  20,000 
Number  of  serials  currently  received..  6,000 
Number  of  volumes  in  Beading-room: 

about  15,000 

Number  of  volumes  in  Bancroft 

Library:  about  60,000 

Number  of  manuscripts  in  Bancroft 

Library:  about  100,000 

Use  of  library  (statistics  for  1914) : 

Day  use 144,248 

Home  use  67,514 

Overnight  use  6,058 

Total   217,820 

Library  staff:  Librarian,  associate  librarian,  5 
department  heads,  14  senior  assistants,  12 
junior  assistants,  7  attendants,  etc.;  total  40, 
exclusive  of  student  service. 


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